Music Review//The Happy Problem - Head Case

Problems are rarely happy but in this case it's a sure fire exception. This album from the New York City based band fronted by the former folk singer Samantha Shaber shows few signs of her former genre and instead concentrates on turning the volume right up to loud.


Music Review//The Happy Problem - Head Case

With most of the tracks taking a indie punk approach - the latter bringing the biggest thrills by far for this writer! - this is an album that is brilliantly diverse. There are are Gogol Bordello-esque touches on lead single Matador and if the lyrics sometimes seem to take on a life of their own it's because they are incredibly well written and sung, perhaps unusually for music of this genre. 


Other highlights among many include the folk inspired Seaweed, the understated but perfectly cool Coldfish and Lost, with a pulsating chorus worthy of repeated listen as a message that you can jump from folk to punk perfectly credibly! There are also some unexpected covers of a certain Madonna's Material Girl that arguably works better than the original and an effective cover of the ever relevant Downtown. 


But forget about well the well executed covers, it's the originals that stand out here and that is just one reason why this album really does excite like few albums do on their first listen. Less of a problem and definitely more of a must listen! 

Review by Seba. This article also appears on Verbicide.com.